Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

I don't think that is normall behaviour :-/

 

The fan on my AW11Z went crazy with the last two BIOS updates. Fan stayed on silent during the first update. That's the 3 BIOS updates for the AW.

 

No, I was waiting for it to finish the job. Then I got a blue screen.
I wonder why since I have a nice clean Windows installed.
No logo at startup, only a black screen (I mean really black, like when the system is off!).

I've tried to load Ubuntu on CD: the drive is reading the cd when inserted, but doesn't go on with it. (the screen remains black also)

The numkey lock led is on, but I can't use the keyboard: it doesn't respond.

 

I think update bricked BIOS ..
Denus
What u been doing with laptop while was updating ?
is it in warranty ??

 

Yeah I mean blue screen .. fan is on max speed ...during reflash ..

 

Were you using a bios update for your specific model or was it from another model?

 

Doesn't matter by model number I've updated from another models and no problem if will be different series the message will pop-up it's not intended bla bla bla ..

 

It was the specific model, the right firmware (from the support & drivers page of my system).
And yes, I got one year left & one year extended warranty, so I think I know what to do now.....

 

I have a question concerning bios... I have version 1.23.1109 installed but I HATE updating bios (I had 2 cases like Denus for asolutely no reason...)

My question is, even if I'm not planning on RAID, if I add a second harddrive in the computer, will the bios (and therefore the OS) recognize it right away?? Currently I have no access to the advanced tab in the bios (nothing shows). Also, do you guys know if the bios can be set up to AHCI rather than IDE SATA??

 

You don't need to update BIOS
Yes your bios will recognise second HDD/SSD
actually it will be first HDD/SSD
on the left side bay is slave on the right side bay is master and that will be SATA AHCI on the left is SATA IDE
Do you have SATA connector there? on right side ?

 

Thanks a lot for your answer it makes it pretty clear. No I don't have a second sata connector on the right but I ordered the missing parts... I'm just planning ahead a bit

Thanks again!

 

This does not look like the SONY BIOS version.
For AW series it should be in the format: RxxxxY2.

 

Where did you order the parts please ? and how much ?
I have ordered too

 

Denus,
you may be able to recover your bad BIOS flash without asking for help from SONY.

The AMI BIOS has a system block for recovery. It looks like in your case this block is not damaged (since the computer is trying to access the CD drive). Read this document carefully:

http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Flash_Recovery_Whitepaper_v10.pdf

esp. page 9. You do not need a floppy, you can burn your .rom file on a CD (it does not need to be bootable).

Good luck. Let us know if it worked for you (it should if you follow directions).

 

I ordered here in canada to a company called "MTC services" that was refered to me by the sony support. They were out of stock so I'll have to wait for 2-4 weeks

The price is around 200$Can

 

And that you paid for cable and caddy ? yes ?
hmm probably all right
I have paid 70 pounds just for cable

 

You give me hope, but it seems it's more difficult than that.
I pulled the files of the updater out of the Temp directory, renamed R1054Y2.wph into AMIBOOT.ROM as described on the link you gave me.
Burned all the files (including the .wph file) of the updater on a CD and started the system with the CD in it. The drive is reading the cd in the beginning, but doesn't do anything after that.

Oh, it seems that the keyboard is not responding at all, so Ctrl - Home will not work here.
I'm not sure about that tho....

 

Hi Damak

Could please upload again or send me the unpacked BIOS R1054Y2.RAR please ?

It would be great, thanks !

 

Yes it is for both the cable and the caddy, I think your price is mostly right since 200Can = around 116 pounds... and the cable was about 2 times the price of the caddy.

Anyway, let's face it, it's a ripp off but no one forced me to buy those...

 

If u order from sony directly is 20 pounds less
Anyway parts are expensive everywhere 'cos it's like ''penalty'' or meaning u want something more etc ...
I could have caddy for 35 dollars + 15 dollars but i bought from different model for 10 quid and will do modify later ..

 

Hi,
I am close to purchasing an AW41 (to replace A297XP...ask your Dad )

Is it possible to upgrade elements of the AW series (apart from RAM obviously) such as graphics to increase say from 512MB to 1GB dedicated?
Or is that impossible?

Also as Sony do not do Core i7 yet do you think it's such a big deal? HP DV8 has Core i7 and 1GB dedicated graphics, but the AW41 build looks so much better. Just don't want to regret not going Core i7 when it is available now.

Not sure how much faster i7 is or indeed if the extra speed would matter to me. Not a gamer really. More a movie man!

Thanks
Phil

 

it will not be possible to upgrade the graphics.

I'd get the i7-based HP machine if I were you. My only hold-up would be the build quality of the HP's, which I'm not familiar with. i7 is a superior technology in every way to Core 2 Duo. It'll last you longer and with noticeably better performance. if I recall correctly, the HP also has a superior GPU.

That being said, the Vaio is a good, reliable computer with the best screen in the industry. the HP screen is pretty good too, from what I hear.

IMO: Get the HP unless you're spending someone else's money, as the HP will give you more with less money. If it is someone else's money then just get what you want.

 

No, the .wph and .rom are completely different files. You can't just rename the file extensions. That's why it does not work.

.rom file is a back-up BIOS file. I did not realise you don't have a BIOS back up. I would make a back up for you from my AW, but because the hardware may not be identical, I just don't want to make matters worse.

Since you do not have a BIOS backup (dump) file I suppose you must ask sony for help.

 

anyone know what software update the dolby center is found in?

edit: found it. re-installed the audio driver and it appeared.

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/298052209/R1054Y2.RAR.html

 

here is a backup /backup with amiflash/ from old bios .:
http://rapidshare.com/files/298054702/R1052Y2.ROM.html

 

Went for Win7 Ultimate x64. Everything seems to work nicely, except the tray open button, which displays a message "Cannot open the tray of the optical drive..." Has anyone managed to fix it? I got so used to this button under Vista, too bad it doesn't function.

 

No problems here. Did you install all the vaio apps in the right order? Does it display the vaio popup window you also see when changing brightness?

I do have random boots however, since upgrading the bios. Anyone else had this?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428952

 

Yes, apps are installed and popup is displayed, however I just noticed that BD drive does not appear in the list of devices

I've had memory dump once, but that's about it, otherwise nothing odd.

 

That is an old quote. With the latest drivers and utils I've had no such issues.

 

Hi any news about RAID ?

 

I am having many issues on my AW290J...Says I have the wrong battery since battery check was installed, no eject either and know the computer won't let me delete files on my D: drives as it says I'm not the admin, though I am. One other thing...I did a clean install but a bios screen comes up at boot asking if I want Vista or Win 7. It will default to Win7 after 20 seconds. No vista installed. Any help with these problems would be really appreciated...

 

I would have deleted that "D" partition. Then wipe "format' "C" drive.

I never installed a OS change on a laptop before. 20 times on a desktop. I also plan on waiting until Hitachi comes out with there 500gb 7200rpm sata drive before I install windows 7 RAID 0. Should be in the next 8 weeks. But I am buckling up for some setbacks.

 

I wish I had done that on both drives. I didn't think d: would be a problem. I did clean the rescue partition. What can I do now? Any tricks to format a drive when it doesn't think you are the admin?

 

I would think that windows 7 installer would give the option to delete the partition. In Vista I do not think it can be done. I know from loading XP Pro they give the option to delete all partitions and start with one fresh one right before it formats. there should an option...."delete existing partition"....delete both of them. Then you should have what looks like two brand new hard drives. Or one if non RAID. Keep in mind I am still a few weeks away from doing this to my aw290

 

Haven't been looking for a solution. I'm waiting for you to find one

I'm not too fussed about RAID. If it's available I'll probably enable it and have a play but I doubt there will be much noticeable difference in everyday use with two HDDs.

 

Am trying but you know it's not easy
I contacted that guy what he done VT by him .. he must know how to patch other things but you know he will not be bothering because he will have nothing for it ... it take long time to write patch ..
There WILL be very big notice when u use stripped RAID 0 for performance .. with same two hdds 7200 you can have quite nice speed ..
but I have one ssd and if I will be able to solve RAID I will buy second SSD because I can have 400MB/s Read 300MB/s Write you know ..
And I really want it
Look on this
ifiMike12
Look on this one guy called : ScifiMike12
RAID0 on ICH10R controller using 128 kB stripe size.

 

E-Mail I sent to Webroot. Security experts welcome to weigh in:

Please be aware I suspect there are a great deal of security problems which exist despite two reinstalls and a current subscription to SpySweeper with anti-virus installed on this Sony Viao AW290. It is part of continued criminal stalking detailed here:

www.myspace.com/370392338

These are the problems which tell me there are issues:

Spy Sweeper, Spy Sweeper Anti-Virus and Windows One Care/Windows Defender have to be turned on at times, especially at startup

Bogus HP update windows-the mere act of clicking on them anywhere will freeze the screen into Vista what do you want to do now mode-doesn't matter if you click ok, cancel, close or nothing at all-this is a step up from previous bogus HP updates which left a choice and appear to be a new code in this spyware possibly built specifically just for me

The dark blue borders around command and internet pages will turn light blue when I suspect monitoring or remote access is in play-this is also true of word documents, etc.

There are other issues-this is a SERIOUS ONGOING PROBLEM and the person(s) doing it-there are likely two-is committing serious felonies brazenly.

This problem extends to my cell phone and detectives have been notified with regards to my cell phone with instructions to contact the legal compliance division of AT&T for court sanctioned records should this become a necessity-it is so serious a likely kidnapping of a woman is involved and according to this woman, she has already spoken with three detectives and a preliminary hearing on the matter is scheduled soon.

Often SpySweeper sweeeps detect nothing although there likely is something there and SpySweeper may be remotely controlled by this party. Twice SpySweeper has automatically blocked Ardamax Keyloggers and several times a day will block access to known spyware sites I never click on in the first place which may or may not be unusual-it seems to happen a lot with me.

Thanks

Rodney Peterson

 

Spy Sweeper is currently sweeping and has indeed found a virus:

T r o j / B y t V r f y - C

I have deliberately placed spaces between each letter for extra caution.

 

Rodney
Why you messing still with those bad people ??
Don't wisit bad websites !!
Dont contact nobody you don't know ...
they are cheeky basssttarrds ..
Reinstall win7 change all your codes change IP address ..
change email adresses .. etc!

 

IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE! This is part of an ongoing criminal harassment (restraining order violation is a part of it)-contact that is not wanted by either myself or the kidnapped woman, my sometime girlfriend-she has no choice in the matter either. She would have, if she'd refused to give these idiots the time of day when she first met them like every instinct told her to. But they were friends of a nursing supervisor at the psych hospital where we met three years ago. They've been doing this for two solid years and have been arrested several times already-one thinks he's above the law since his father is a homicide detective, the other is a former psychologist who lost his license to practice in California after being arrested for crystal meth-he'a also a Harvard graduate who uses that psychology BS to try and influence and manipulate others-he also used to work for Bank of America and one of the recent text messages we got was about insider information he was planning on using to override her accounts and steal money (he's done this several times before to her-as for me, thank Christ I don't have a Bank Of America account-a recent text said something about a (I initially had the exact type of key here but edited that information out after I thought about it for a second-I don't think BOA would want that to be public knowledge) key-both of us reported that information to the police. He brags about being in a motel right now paying for it with our money (impossible) but is likely paying by stealing from some BOA customer. Both of us have reported those text messages to police. Just this second-3:56 am Pacific Time-one of the two called from a block number, which means they're probably reading this as I type. An E-Mail to SpySweeper disappeared from my sent folder and had to be retyped and resent (I had luckily saved it as a word document.)

As far as the rest of your suggestions, I've already done two fresh installs over the past week, do not click on anything unknown period, deny new startup apps, etc.

This is a text message that just now showed up:

More proif ur waitin 4 drug dealer beter get ready 4 drier at lucy scum bag atwater village dont give (expletive deleted-starts with s) bout ur hairy (expletive deleted-starts with a) u not gettin lucky like (expletive deleted-starts with c)

That text references specific information about the kidnapping.

The phone rang again as I was typing this.

There is also apparently a felony warrant out for at least one of these guys in Santa Barbara-I have detailed a lot of this at the MySpace page.

The computer is quite loaded with protective programs-can't afford Windows 7 right now and Vista is quite adequate for my normal needs, especially on an AW290. I'm also using Firefox, not Explorer.

How would I change IP address? Through ISP? That might be a help, I suppose. But there's no way they should ever have been able to get it in the first place.

 

Also wanted to add I don't visit bad websites-SpySweeper nonetheless often reports blocked access to websites several times a day. Also the hospital I met the girl in has had a LOT of problems-a 14 year old girl raped by another patient while staff was sleeping, two patients overdosed and died on a unit run by Dr. Drew (yes, that one)-one of them dead for nearly 12 hours before being discovered, and now this nursing supervisor and her criminal friends-this is Las Encinas in Pasadena, California and its problems have been widely reported in the media.

 

I'm looking to buy 2x4GB RAM for my AW11S. Anybody got any tips about which ones to buy and where?

 

The E-Mail to Spy Sweeper cut and pasted:

This is the second time I have contacted you in the last half hour regarding this matter-the original E-Mail disappeared from my sent folder leading me to believe the hackers may have had something to do with it.

Please be aware I suspect there are a great deal of security problems which exist despite two reinstalls and a current subscription to SpySweeper with anti-virus installed on this Sony Viao AW290. It is part of continued criminal stalking detailed here:

www.myspace.com/370392338

These are the problems which tell me there are issues:

Spy Sweeper, Spy Sweeper Anti-Virus and Windows One Care/Windows Defender have to be turned on at times, especially at startup

Bogus HP update windows-the mere act of clicking on them anywhere will freeze the screen into Vista what do you want to do now mode-doesn't matter if you click ok, cancel, close or nothing at all-this is a step up from previous bogus HP updates which left a choice and appear to be a new code in this spyware possibly built specifically just for me

The dark blue borders around command and internet pages will turn light blue when I suspect monitoring or remote access is in play-this is also true of word documents, etc.

There are other issues-this is a SERIOUS ONGOING PROBLEM and the person(s) doing it-there are likely two-is committing serious felonies brazenly.

This problem extends to my cell phone and detectives have been notified with regards to my cell phone with instructions to contact the legal compliance division of AT&T for court sanctioned records should this become a necessity-it is so serious a likely kidnapping of a woman is involved and according to this woman, she has already spoken with three detectives and a preliminary hearing on the matter is scheduled soon.

Often SpySweeper sweeeps detect nothing although there likely is something there and SpySweeper may be remotely controlled by this party. Twice SpySweeper has automatically blocked Ardamax Keyloggers and several times a day will block access to known spyware sites I never click on in the first place which may or may not be unusual-it seems to happen a lot with me.

Thanks

Rodney Peterson

NOTE: SpySweeper did indeed find a virus: Byt-Vrfy-C 1 item, 3 traces-quarantined-I would like to delete it but am worried it may be self replicating. Thanks.

That's a reply to their automated reply which is the criteria for a live person reviewing the matter.

 

Hi guys,

I have a question to those of you who use RGB LED screens.

What kind of color calibration device do you use? Is Spyder3 or similiary-priced item going to make it for a screen with wide gamut? I've read confusing comments about this issue.

My question is addresses mainly to those of you who are quite serious about color management and who print their work regularly.

 

I have the RGB LED-I notice there is a slight bleed in black. It appears to be a non fixable manufacturing issue. Some people have sent it in for repairs but my position on the matter is this is a sub $3,000 notebook computer-and a damn good one-not a $12,000 state of the art HDTV and that is acceptable. I don't know what results, if any, these extremely picky videophiles get from that repair if indeed it can be fixed.

The color scheme changes to basic when playing Blu Ray I don't know what that's about but I have absolutely no issues with the playback quality which is in a word superb.

You may be talking about Adobe color management, however-I have the program but as not yet needed it. However, it's the only way to get the RGB LED screen (now discontinued) and well worth it and I hope to have a use for it soon.

 

Hi All,

I purchased an AW180Y from Costco about 6 weeks ago and I'm happy with it.

However, I've run into some trouble finding a way to receive the free upgrade to Windows 7 offer by Sony/Microsoft/Costco. I hope you have a solution.

I was able to find the web page to register for my copy this way:

1. (indicate the model I purchased) http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/os...N-AW180Y/Q&month=&day=&year=&mdl=VGN-AW180Y/Q

2. (through the learn more icon) https://ebiz3.mentormediacorp.com/Sony_USWindows7Upgrade/Select_Lan.aspx

3. (after a few dialog drop down boxes, I get this page) https://ebiz3.mentormediacorp.com/Sony_USWindows7Upgrade/order.aspx

Here is the first problem:

I do not find AW180Y in the drop down box 2 for PC MODEL.

If I put in AW290Y (that also upgrades to 64bit ultimate) then I encounter the second problem:

Sony asks for money for the "FREE" upgrade. $15 I remember. (I know, it's not much, but I've already paid $1700 plus tax for the PC - so, it wouldn't be much for the vendor to pay for the $15 (it's less than 1%) either. Why am I asked for the credit card for this?)

At this point, Costco offers to credit me the $15 processing fee that Sony charges. Kudos to Costco!! But, I've still not received an answer to how I can actually register for the the 180Y.

Do you have any suggestions?

 

I was talking about hardware calibration, not software. I'm trying to decide whether a non-costly solution like Spyder3Elite or Eye One Display 2 is going to be efficient.

I can't afford top-of-the-line spectrophotometer.

Edit:
I'm looking for a device that would profile my screen for sRGB and Adobe RGB, make nice ICC files to be used in Photoshop and similar software, thus allowing me to see same colors on my screen and on my prints. That's the whole point

 

Call Costco.com Customer Service, they will help you. Entering AW290Y instead of AW180Y will not work, because you do not have proof of purchase for that model. Do not call Sony or Mentor Media Corp about this issue, it's a waste of time. Contact Costco and they will put your order for FREE upgrade in for you.

 

Spyder3 will work. I recommend using this instrument with ColorEyes Display by Integrated Color ( www.integrated-color.com). Note: I have nothing to do with either of these companies (Datacolor or Integrated Color).

Spyder3 performance on wide gamut displays is much better than other sensors currently available. The main advantage of ColorEyes Display software over what comes with Spyder3 (Pro or Elite) is that the former gives you feedback on the quality of the profile and your display (by showing dE). I believe ColorEyes also builds better profiles than Datacolor software.

Top-of-the-line spectrophotometers usually come with high-quality displays, they are not stand alone products.

As I see it, the sole raison d'etre for the AW series is the RGB LED display. Granted, it is still a TN panel, but it offers 8-bit color (no dithering) and Adobe RGB color reproduction. It's an excellent display for color critical work (probably best photo display on a portable comp today). If you do your screen calibration and soft proofing in Photoshop, you will get a very close color match.